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So here’s a theory about what’s behind the ongoing lockdown violations by the very people pushing lockdowns. It might explain why all of the officials who keep getting caught doing this seem to come from the same political slant.
Last year, there was talk about /1
Last year, there was talk about /1
The idea of “luxury beliefs”. The idea behind this theory is that as the differentiation between the working and upper-middle class blurs in terms of lifestyle and material status symbols, people will find other avenues of demarcation. /2 https://quillette.com/2019/11/16/thorstein-veblens-theory-of-the-leisure-class-a-status-update/
One of those avenues is to inflate extreme-niche issues to gigantic importance and/or to profess belief in absurdities while denigrating those who aren’t part of your in-group (and elevating oneself by implication).
For those who are trying to come up in life, /3
For those who are trying to come up in life, /3
operating in a rational manner is probably very important. But what better way to show that you are of a superior class than to not have to worry about whether or not your professed beliefs make any sense...and you get to shit on everyone else in the process! Win/win. So, /4
what does this have to do with COVID and lockdowns? To relate to the luxury beliefs theory, the point is that it is inherently desirable to do things which those below you in status may not do. And so Gavin Newsom and London Breed dine at the French Laundry. Bill /5
DeBlasio (not his real name, BTW) dances in Time’s Square on NYE after telling everyone else to stay home, etc. The point is not the thing itself (dining, travel, etc), the point is that THEY get to do things which lower status individuals can not. /6
The desire to be part of an aristocracy runs deep, and it runs deepest in those who speak most loudly about the poor, paying your fair share, etc. COVID is a golden opportunity for this class to claim extra powers in the name of benevolence. /7
But we’re already seeing, again and again, that the justifications for the power grab are OBVIOUSLY not believed by the people preaching them, or they wouldn’t be out there eating foie grad. It only starts to make sense when you see that the POINT is to create /8
special privileges for their class which those of lower status do not share. As the lines have blurred towards the upper/middle end (someone worth $10 mil drives the same Mercedes as someone worth $200k), perhaps it’s natural for that energy to run towards pulling /9
up the ladder on the lower end, and make what was once ordinary into the exclusive domain of the powerful and connected.
If you are reading this, you are already someone whose material life is vastly better than the wealthiest Medieval king. But you don’t /10
If you are reading this, you are already someone whose material life is vastly better than the wealthiest Medieval king. But you don’t /10
really feel or appreciate that on a day-to-day basis, because it is just your norm. Maybe having a few servants around you would help, but your average big city law partner can easily afford a maid. You don’t feel special enough yet. But what if you could make it /11
so that trips to tropical islands & luxurious dinners were only allowed for those like you and your inner circle?What if you could be pampered at a salon when no one else could? Maybe now you’d feel special. Maybe now everyone would see your God-given superiority to the serfs /12
If this seems over the top, ask yourself why there is a class of people, composed almost entirely of government officials and those who rely on proximity to their power, who seem hell-bent on COVID world continuing even after vaccines are distributed. What /13
the hell is in it for them? The new order fits nicely for those whose paychecks never stopped (and may have risen). For those who make proclamations shaming the rest of us with life and death warnings while living as if they were above this behind the scenes. /14
These people are aristocrats. This is what they have always wanted.
The good news is that aristocracy only exists in places where everyone else accepts that it’s the natural order.
My country exists because people decided that it wasn’t. /fin
The good news is that aristocracy only exists in places where everyone else accepts that it’s the natural order.
My country exists because people decided that it wasn’t. /fin
I should proofread these things for typos first
